Lord of the Rings and Leadership

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According to Joe Tye, “Tolkien had an intuitive understanding of the theories and practices of leadership that was well ahead of its time” (Leadership Lessons). This is a concept that even the most common reader of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings can grasp. Without this sense of leadership, particularly different styles of leadership, there would be no one against the other; making for a rather dull plotline and timid movie. The story would lack in substance as it would be difficult to define the good against evil, the right against wrong, and it would essentially consist of many enraged characters running around with no sense of what to do. While every character in The Lord of the Rings generally has a sense of leadership in their own way and are all completely different leaders, the two that are so different yet so essential to the movies are Sauron, the creator of the Ring, and Aragorn, the exiled king.

These two are personified by two vastly different leadership styles. Sauron, an evil lord, is represented by a more conniving, egotistical manner of leadership, who did not do much beneficial work to help his disciples and generally served only to advance towards a better good for himself. Sauron has a general disdain for his followers and could not care less who had to die on the way to his victory. Sauron was only concerned with the position he held and keeping it that way; this is referred to as Coercive Leadership. Alternatively, Aragorn’s style of leadership had a much more advantageous effect where he intended to not improve his current situation, but the situation of his followers and those around him and he worked with a general concern for the ultimate destiny of his followers. Aragorn was genuinely not concerned wi...

... middle of paper ...

...ragorn was the greater leader and won the most success.

Works Cited

"Bio | Daniel Goleman." Daniel Goleman. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. .

"bully." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 26 May. 2012. .

Goleman, Daniel. "Leadership That Gets Results." Corporate Coaching, Executive Coaching, Coaching Services. Harvard Business Review, Mar.-Apr. 2000. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. .

The Lord of the Rings the Motion Picture Trilogy. Dir. Peter R. Jackson. Perf. Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortenson, Sean Bastine, and Cast. New Line Cinema, 2001-2003. DVD.

Tye, Joe. The 12 Rings of Leadership: Classic Lessons from J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.

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